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Harrowing tales of migrants desperate to reach Europe from Libya

June 21, 2019

Credits: ITV News

"We almost died," recounts one Nigerian woman, trapped in a Libyan migrant camp after a failed attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. The north African nation is effectively a failed state, the product of a brutal civil war between rival factions with so-called Islamic State taking a role in the conflict.

But it's also a stopping point for people hoping for a better life in prosperous Europe. Thousands of people call the camp home. The conditions at the Al Nasr camp, in southern Tripoli, have been condemned - as have the Libyan forces in charge of it. In video seen by ITV News, a guard can be seen in a violent altercation with one of the people living at a separate camp, Abu Salim. He leaves the room, only to return armed with a weapon - and proceeds to make threatening gestures at the migrant.

The threat posed by guards is not the only issue for those living here - so-called Islamic State pick migrants as easy targets to fight in front line conflict. Speaking to ITV News, one man who calls the camp home said: "If the war is starting, they will come and use you. If you leave, they would kill you. This is not a safe place."